News from Greater Minnesota

Web/Tech

Feb 26, 2015

When Tim Walz won a surprise victory over six-term MN01 incumbent Gil Gutknecht in 2006, one of the areas where Walz enjoyed tactical superiority was his swarm of young supporters in their early 20s who knew how the Internet worked.

Thus, his statement on FCC's embrace of strong net neutrality on Thursday is no surprise. From his office:

Today, U.S. Rep. Tim Walz, a longtime supporter of keeping the internet free and open, lauded the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ruling today that will create strong net neutrality rules to ensure access to the internet remains free and open as it is today.

“A free and open internet is important in a free and open society, and that’s exactly what strong net neutrality rules will continue to ensure we enjoy here in America,” said Rep. Walz,a longtime supporter of net neutrality. “This ruling by the FCC will ensure that you, the consumer, can determine what websites you have access to. It will prevent large corporations from becoming internet gatekeepers and slowing down access. And it will continue to foster competition, innovation, and growth in our economy. I applaud today’s ruling by the FCC and pledge to continue fighting to keep the internet free and open for all.”

Background:

What is net neutrality? It’s a very simple concept: keep the internet the way it is today, free and open for all. Enforcing strong net neutrality rules today basically means that nothing will change to the internet you know and love. According to FCC Chairman Wheeler, strong net neutrality rules “assures the rights of internet users to go where they want, when they want, and the rights of innovators to introduce new products without asking anyone’s permission.”

Why are net neutrality rules needed?There are concerns that, without strong net neutrality rules, internet service providers (ISPs) can, at their discretion, slow down or speed up access to certain websites and services. This could lead to higher prices for consumers and stifle innovation, competition, and growth.

For example, an ISP could act as a gatekeeper to the internet, forcing startups—and/or businesses that compete directly with other services offered by ISPs—to pay a premium in order for their service/website to be accessible at the same speeds as other, better established companies. Net neutrality rules would prevent ISPs from becoming internet gatekeepers and guarantee everyone has equal access to the internet, no matter how large or small your company is

Jan 06, 2015

Note: the post below has been updated to clarify a matter confused by a brother blogger on the right who fancies that the payments to credentialled journalist Shawn Towle from the DFL Senate caucus committee began after the DFL took power in 2013.

However, the contracts with the DFL Caucus began in 2012, while Towle was a credentialled journalist, as Towle was first credentialed by the Senate when the Republican caucus controlled the body, as Towle pointed out to the Star Tribune.

But the timeline for the story didn't begin there. Both parties broke the spirit of the Senate media credential policy during the 2011-2012 sessions, and with the same journalist.

At the time that the new rule was crafted in early March 2011, Towle had not yet received a payment from the Republican Party of Minnesota. According to campaign finance records (screenshot here) the first payment of the year to Shawn Towle's Key Strategies was made on March 16, 2011 for "political consulting." Towle received his last payment on November 7, 2011. Because party units and campaigns file only year-end reports in non-election years, it's like that Mr. Brodkorb, in his role as deputy chair of the MNGOP, would have known of Towle's arrangement with the party. We can't fault the rest of the committee that wrote the credentialling rules of Mr. Towle's circumstances.

By 2012, the careers of both Brodkorb and Towle had changed greatly. Mr. Brodkorb, dismissed from his position as 2011 drew to a close, was suing the Senate as a whole for damages. Mr. Towle, for his part, had secured contracts with the DFL Senate Caucus. The DFL Senate Caucus won control of the chamber in the 2012 elections, and Mr. Towle's payments continued through January 2014. Mr. Brodkorb settled his lawsuit against the Senate as a whole in September 2013.

We do hope that the Senate will finally adher to the high standards set by the media credentialling committee in 2011, since the case of Mr. Towle, who was paid by both parties, can certainly confuse the matter. Moreover, the example makes the case for having the records at the Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board searchable by vendor. [end note]

That’s a pretty broad definition, but the background appears to be related to a blogger named Shawn Towle, who received a Senate press pass while also being paid by the Senate DFL.

As we noted in our earlier posts (links above), Towle was first hired by the DFL Senate Caucus in 2012, before it took over the upper chambers following that year's election; he had been on contract with the Republican Party of Minnesota in 2010 and 2011. The 2011 payments for "political consulting" began shortly after the media credentialing policy was updated to include online journalists.

Montgomery continues:

Republican senators made a stink about Towle in April of 2014, putting out a press release accusing DFL leader Tom Bakk of “secret payments” to Towle.

Introducing the proposed change today, Bakk described it as “something the rules committee had considerable conversation about near the end of the session last year.”

Mike McIntee at The Uptake have provided a video clip of Majority Leader Tom Bakk (DFL-Cook) introducing the change:

Bluestem Prairie has not sought Minnesota Senate media credentials, as we don't fancy ourself to be a journalist. We are simply a poor country blog.

Photo: Senate Majority Leader Tom Bakk.

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Looking through the Solution Center, we discovered that the Grand Old Party is offering nothing under the "Safety and Security" rubric, as well as no reading material. We've posted the current infographic at the top of this entry.

Here's a screenshot of the bottom of the graphic as it now resides on the MNGOP website (the time and date are in the lower right hand corner of the image):

The main Solution Center page text for the section outlines the party's goals:

We're reminded of Bakk's statement last week when he talked about "DFL" attempts to raid the IRRRB's Douglas Johnson Funds, when the public record and Nexis database clearly indicate those raids were planning by Republicans: former Governor Pawlenty and the 2011 Republican-controlled state legislature, as well as the fantasy administration outlined in Tom Emmer's 2010 gubernatorial campaign. (Check it out in Range Trust? Baffling Senate Majority Leader Bakk blames IRRRB fund threats on Democrats).

Given the way that the State DFL scolds party activists who dare criticize sitting Democratic legislators, we're puzzled just how Bakk has wiggled himself into having a waiver on that party rule.

Graphics: From the GOP Solutions Center.

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Nov 27, 2014

An new article by Forum Communications political reporter Don Davis underscores how attitudes about rural broadband on the part of state representative-elect Tim Miller (R-Prinsburg) may not be in the best interests of his district.

The report by Connect Minnesota shows greater Minnesota-large city disparities as well as differences among the state's mostly rural counties.

While such disparities may just frustrate an online gamer, they can cost rural businesses money.

“It’s a big need [and the] one problem we have," Justin Dukek of Captive Advertising in north central Minnesota's Bagley said in a recent Greater Minnesota Partnership meeting. "For a lot of our design work, we need to communicate with customers. It’s frustrating because we want to be here.”

State officials heard that message from across the state and earlier this year provided $20 million in grants that will be awarded soon to parts of the state, mostly in rural areas, that experience slow Internet speeds. The private Blandin Foundation also provides assistance.

Officials say more than $3 billion in private, foundation and government money is needed to bridge the state's digital divide.

The counties in MN17A (outlined below, although only part of Kandiyohi County is in the district) are plague by slow speeds:

In Chippewa, Kandiyohi, and Swift Counties, under 50 percent of people have access to wired service at minimum acceptable speed, while in Renville County, between 60-70 percent of the residents do. It's much slower than the Metro or in nearby Stevens and Lac Qui Parle County.

Oct 21, 2014

Tuesday's Morning Take noted a new Halloween-themed microsite from the Minnesota House DFL caucus committee:

FIRST: Today the House DFL will launch a campaign microsite called the GOP House of Horrors, targeting incumbent Republican Representatives on an interactive map. When you click the photo of the Representative you get a bio of their “scary” ideas. SURF: http://bit.ly/1tHPIX5

Nevertheless, the site is helpful in explicating why the photo on Miller's Facebook page (above) is so scary. From left to right, the photo shows the doorknocking help Miller received over the weekend: Made ALEC member Steve "Draz" Drazkowski, Miller, Scott Newman for Attorney General campaign manager state senator Dave Thompson, and Minnesota House District30B candidate Eric Lucero.

Last time Republican Steve Drazkowksi was in the majority, the very first bill he introduced included provisions to let local governments in Minnesota discriminate against female employees based on pay, for the first time in nearly 30 years. Even though the law has resulted in more than $1.2 million in back-pay for 1,300 Minnesotans, Drazkowski said protecting women against this form of discrimination was “unnecessary.” Editorial boards said Drazkowski’s proposal was “at best naïve and, at worst, sexist.” [Sources: HF7, introduced 1/10/11; Winona Daily News, 2/11/11; Winona Daily News Editorial 2/16/11]

So that's even better that we're setting out for than for your, ah, your [spins finger] Economic Progress Bill or whatever it is.

I apologize that I have not read all of your bills. I have a job. I need to go out there and work. It's easy when you're in the legislature to stay on top of all the intricacies of this. I did not realize that this was going to be test on the Andrew Falk bill writing academy.

By the way, Drazkowski was part of the minority of the minority Republican caucus to vote against WESA.

In the 2012 election, more than 90 percent of Prinsburg's voters cast their presidential ballots for Mitt Romney, and in every other race that pitted a Republican against a Democrat, more than 75 percent leaned towards the GOP.

That profile stands in stark contrast with the rest of the district, where Romney took 50.72 percent percent of the vote to Obama's 47.04 percent. Falk won the district by 53.86 percent, while in every other race that pitted a Republican against a Democrat, more than 60 percent chose the DFL.

There's no public school in Prinsburg, so perhaps that's why Miller can say the scary thing that the DFL found on his website:

Tim Miller is no friend to public education. After his Republican allies took more than $2 billion in funds from our schools in 2011, Miller defended the borrowing stating “Plainly stated, schools suffered no burdens because of the shift.” [Source: standwithtim.com, accessed 10/7/14]

According to Miller's wife, pointing out facts like that, as Education Minnesota did in at least one mail piece to members, makes Miller look like "an uncaring ogre." Her words, not ours or those of the union. We don 't think that pointing out the positions of Miller's allies is a personal attack--and that's what the union has been doing.

That brings us to the record of another candidate Thompson is working to support. Thompson now serves as the campaign manager for Republican Attorney General candidate Scott Newman, author of the failed Photo ID amendment of 2012. Only 42.47 percent of HD17A voted for this amendment, which incumbent Andrew Falk also opposed, which illustrates how, on Planet Tim, some amendments are more equal than others.

Blending the gender distinctions such as women in combat and homosexuals openly serving in the military.

That information is repeated on the DFL site, framed about how even Republicans found those views extreme:

Eric Lucero’s views are so extreme, the Republican Party and the Voices of Conservative Women both tried to defeat him in an August primary (unsuccessfully). Lucero’s campaign website has attacked government policies “blending the gender distinctions such as women in combat and homosexuals openly serving in the military.” [Sources: MinnPost.com, 6/26/14; Voices of Conservative Women, 2/20/14]

These are the people who join Tim Miller knocking on doors in MN 17A.

And incumbent Andrew Falk (DFL-Murdock)? He chose a much different photo to post over the weekend. Sure, there are a couple DFL House leaders in the shot, but there's also the mayor of one of the towns in the district, people of both genders, and a wide mix of ages:

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Seems that the JOBS NOW coalition gets the calls the very similarly-named (but much more recently created) MN Job Coalition does because it doesn't have a phone number on its website. Just google it, gentle readers, and you see why those citizens wishing to get off the newbies' mailing list might get confused.

In our search, MN Jobs Coalition is at the top, while JOBS NOW is second.

The executive director of the JOBS NOW Coalition sought our assistance out of genuine concern for the younger operation. Apparently, Job Now was fielding other inquiries as well:

JOBS NOW Coalition is getting more calls than ever this season from persons who are disgusted by MN Jobs Coalition mailings, ads etc. But we just got a call from the Albert Lea Tribune who asked for someone named Ethan because he placed an ad against Rep. Shannon Savick for publication tomorrow but the credit card used to pay for it was declined. . . . (JOBS NOW Coalition is 30 years old!) The confusion is made even worse lately because when someone tries to google the organization, JOBS NOW comes up prominently thus adding to the confusion. We publicize our phone number, their site has no phone number associated with them.

We're not sure if it's the same Ethan, but this might be the guy that the Albert Lea Tribune advertising department was looking for.

Knowing Bluestem's passion for documentation, she also sent along a voicemail of another call--from an irate voter in Shoreview who doesn't like the group's mailings. Other than muting the audio where the caller gives his address, we've not altered the recording in the YouTube below.

In the spirit of good will, we also share the phone number that's listed on the political fund's registration with the public disclosure board so people know who to call about mailings and payment for newspaper ads. It's at the end of this YouTube created using the Shoreview voter's voicemail:

Sep 13, 2014

Given the uproar over Republican state supreme court endorsee Michelle McDonald's pending DUI trial, eccentric views on court reform, and the subsequent flight of party and endorsed Attorney General candidate Scott Newman and Jeff Johnson from her side, Bluestem was curious why Dan Severson had been so quiet.

Although Severson's focus began to shift from perceptions of judicial corruption to election corruption, he still maintained his contacts in this segment of the Republican base in this video from 2011:

One can even see the cowboy hat of McDonald sponsor Bonn Clayton in that video.

However, nothing compares to the nearly 41 minute interview with documentary filmmaker Bill Windsor for his epic film, Lawless America, that was uploaded in 2013:

In the video, Severson shares a view of family court very similar to that espoused by McDonald. He also noodles the idea that the United States is a police state because we call law enforcement "the police," inveighs against no-fault divorce and of course, declares Minnesota's election system to be the absolute worst in the country.

Nor does he have kind words for current secretary of state Mark Ritchie, who is retiring at the end of this year.

Severson is running for the open seat, along with DFL-endorsed candidate Steve Simon,IP endorsee Bob Helland and Libertarian Party candidate Bob Odden, according to the filings at the OSS office.

We'll update this post with transciptions of some of the more interesting segments of the interview, as well as more about Bill Windsor's Lawless America.

UPDATE: Highlights:

On judicial abuse (4:15): I think that the issue for me as a legislator was to ensure that the balance of powers that our Founding Fathers had put together were realized, that they enacted, that they were protected. And right now I believe very strongly that the judiciary has moved far beyond the confines of our constitution, are legislating from the bench, and we have people who are given to power.

One of the other problems that we have in the legislature as well is that we have a lot of lawyers who get into the legislature for the sole purpose of being visible enough to get elected to the bench or to be appointed to the bench. And then they been worked hard with the Quie Commission Report and the rest to try to suitcase their ability to stay on the bench once they get there so they don't things like the . . . .statute that basically says they can;t have their past rulings recorded, that was struck down in the courts, I think it was . . .the Republican Party v. White, that was struck down, so the bottomline is that they're absolutely vulnerable in terms of how they have been ruling and that's what precipitated the Quie Commission Report and the push to go to a retention election, which would take away the ability and the power of the people to make the decision instead....

15:30: People don't pay attention until it affects them. The problem with this problem is that you don't know when it's going to affect you or how it's going to affect you.

And once you get scooped up into the system, and it begins to work against you, you have no recourse. You can completely lose your God-given and natural rights as a United States citizen, as an American citizen that's subject to the confines of the guy that's sitting on the bench.

And so I think it is probably better to be pro-active instead of reactive in this particular situation. we can take back our judiciary. we can take back that branch of government but we have to hold the bench accountable and we do that through the election process.

We have to take away all of the protections that the judicial branch has put up to keep them incumbent, to keep those powers on the bench. We need to diversify those powers. The attorneys' licensure should never be held by the courts, they should be held independently, and the court should be able to be as close to the people as possible. That's what our founders really intended. . . .

On the police in America (17:25):

Windsor: People just don't have a clue. We don't have constitutional rights here anymore. The judge just does whatever he wants, law enforcement does whatever they want.

Severson: Yep and I think a good example of that, Bill, you know, is when our founders put together the whole concept of the peaceable community and our law enforcers were called peace officers. And now they're police.

And what do you relate police to? Police is a police state.

Something that orchestrates the behavior of the people because they have to adhere to a certain conduct. And that was never the intent. The intent was to keep peace in the community, to be kind of like the Mayberry where you don't carry around a gun, you just try through a relationship, try and make sure everybody is living within their own rights and are not becoming onerous to the community. [Editor's note: guns in the Andy Griffith Show via the Internet Movie Firearms Database].

And it's unfortunately that with power comes--power corrupts absolutely, And so we've kind of come to a police state as well. And many of the llargers areas where the police have taken, probably for self-preservation means, more authority than they should be but they, it creates fear in the community because sometimes those people who are hungry for power abuse that power and it gives the police a bad name.

I'd prefer to see them go back to peacekeepers, you know.

Family law (19:24): . . .in the family law, the provisions that we have now, there's so much room for abuse. It's dysfunctional, because it's not working to keep the family together, it's just working to be an arbiter, and that's not really their goal. That should not be there, they should not be put into that situation.

We have a lot of good peace officers who get stuck in a bad situation. But then again, I bring that back to the whole judicial side and the failure of that.

And for me I believe in Minnesota that is in the form of no-fault divorce. I think that has been one of the most damaging pieces of legsiation toward our family coherence, for the ability to maintain a family. It's just bad legislation and it needs to be repealed.

. . .When you get into the meatgrinder, you have no intention of getting in there, but all of a sudden--I'll tell you , when I was doorknocking as a legislator and I go around and I met with so many--particularly young men who had been through this because of the no-fault divorce, they've been, their marriages have been dissolved, and now they're being taken to the cleaners. They were behind in child support so they'd lose their drivers license and now they could get to their jobs and it's a tremendous downward spiral.

And I'll tell you honestly, both parties are bad in this process in terms of family law. Republicans have been as bad as the Democrats. And we need some real reform in how we begin to restructure and bring the family protection back into our statutes.

Minnesota elections (26:45): We ran for Secretary of State in 2010 because you know we have a corrupted voting system in Minnesota.

The worst.

And we have a guy in there now who is the worst of the worst. Mark Ritchie. He is partisan and he does not serve the best interests of the people of Minnesota. He serves the best interests of the far left progressive agenda and he's just not doing the will of the people.

The Tea Party (39:09) I think there's a growing movement, though, of people who take a look at the Tea Party, people who want to be knowledgeable about what's going on in their government and so they're forearmed in this process and I think that's want this is, this is part of tha process...

Images: Dan Severson in the Lawless America interview (above): Andy fires Warren's revolver at fleeing suspects in "Aunt Bee Takes a Job" (episode 6.13) via the Internet Movie Firearms Database. While the Andy Taylor character did not carry a gun, his deputies did. Barney Fife's lack of skills was a running gag in the show (below).

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Sep 07, 2014

Because Jim Hagedorn stops by the Worthington Globe to chat, the editors are fancying that there's some there there. In Hard-working Hagedorn, they opine:

Walz and Hagedorn may be political opposites, but Hagedorn’s campaign does bear some similarity to the one Walz ran eight years ago when he surprised well-entrenched Republican incumbent Gil Gutknecht. Walz pounded the southwest Minnesota pavement with a tenacity that demonstrated deep interest in his future constituents, and came across as an everyman who didn’t embody the style and manner of a typical politician. . . .

To hear Hagedorn say it Tuesday, disenchantment with Walz and President Obama is widespread across the region, thanks to a litany of failed liberal policies.

Whether Hagedorn is exaggerating such a malaise remains to be seen, but if history is any indication, November may well be tough on Walz and his fellow Democrats — especially if Hagedorn continues to work as hard as he has thus far.

We're not sure if "everyman" is the best term to describe Hagedorn, or if the Worthington Globe editors actually checked history when they wrote that. We have, and see two major differences between 2006 and 2014.

Walz was raising cash, staffing up and generating good will and national attention. Hagedorn is not raising money and while he is gaining national media attention, it much more resembles Gutknecht's own "wiki wiping" headlines at this time eight years ago.

Scrubs: Hagedorn's blog erasure and Gutknecht's wikipedia wiping

Beginning in late August, Hagedorn has been plagued by the re-emergence via an article in Mother Jones of his old racist, sexist and homphobic blog posts. The flack continues: witness the September 6, 2014 Star Tribune coverage Jim Hagedorn faces an uphill battle against Tim Walz, with its tag line: "The GOP candidate pulled off a stunning primary upset, but old blog posts, party infighting have dogged his campaign."

Jim Hagedorn, who is running against 1st District Congressman Tim Walz, would like to think of people who demand strong characters of their potential elected officials as “politically correct liberals.” That’s a direct quote from Hagedorn’s pathetic attempt at an apology to such groups as women, American Indians, homosexuals and to our president, for his writings he characterizes as satire.

He goes on to say ...”the rather worn and tired Democrat tactic of personal destruction and demonization is designed to deflect attention from the serious problems confronting our nation and the failed big government record of President Barack Obama and devoted liberal followers like incumbent DFL Congressman Tim Walz.”

Is it not an engaged citizen’s duty to know who they are electing to solve the serious problems that are confronting our nation?

Someone who spews this kind of hatred has no business, in my opinion, holding public office, let alone attempting to solve the nation’s serious problems.

“A spokesman for Gutknecht did not dispute that his office tried to change his Wikipedia entry. But he called into question the reliability of the service, which was created in 2001 and claims to be the largest reference website on the Internet.”

Translation: I don’t deny that you found me with my hand in your safe, but I really think you should have a better lock on that thing.

There's no doubt Hagedorn works hard, at scrubbing his website and campaigning. But by this time in September 2006, Walz had staffed up and the race was on, as Bluestem's archives reveal.

This year? Not so much.

Fundraising in the 2006 race

Perhaps the most important benchmark for comparing the 2006 and 2014challengers' campaigns is money and the field effort it supports.

Since Minnesota had not yet moved its primary from September to August, we can't compare 2006 and 2014 pre-primary reports, only the July quarterly reports for the two challengers. Here's the summary report of the July Quarterly report for Walz in 2006:

5. Covering Period 04/01/2006 Through 06/30/2006

Column AThis Period

Column BElectionCycle-To-Date

6. Net Contributions (other than loans)

(a) Total Contributions (other than loans)

202291.05

447451.58

(b) Total Contribution Refunds

0.00

50.00

(c) Net Contributions (6(a) - 6(b))

202291.05

447401.58

7. Net Operating Expenditures

(a) Total Operating Expenditures

73913.99

194825.84

(b) Total Offsets to Operating Expenditures

0.00

253.61

(c) Net Operating Expenditures

73913.99

194572.23

8. Cash on Hand at Close of Reporting Period

252829.35

9. Debts and Obligations Owed TO the Committee

0.00

Itemize all on SCHEDULE C or SCHEDULE D

10. Debts and Obligations Owed BY the Committee

0.00

Itemize all on SCHEDULE C or SCHEDULE D

And here's the 2014 July quarterly report for Hagedorn:

5. Covering Period 04/01/2014 Through 06/30/2014

Column AThis Period

Column BElectionCycle-To-Date

6. Net Contributions (other than loans)

(a) Total Contributions (other than loans)

30035.00

74960.00

(b) Total Contribution Refunds

0.00

50.00

(c) Net Contributions (6(a) - 6(b))

30035.00

74910.00

7. Net Operating Expenditures

(a) Total Operating Expenditures

22491.09

68015.65

(b) Total Offsets to Operating Expenditures

0.00

0.00

(c) Net Operating Expenditures

22491.09

68015.65

8. Cash on Hand at Close of Reporting Period

11894.35

9. Debts and Obligations Owed TO the Committee

0.00

Itemize all on SCHEDULE C or SCHEDULE D

10. Debts and Obligations Owed BY the Committee

0.00

Itemize all on SCHEDULE C or SCHEDULE D

In the equivalent period, Walz took in (in 2006 dollars) nine times what Hagedorn did in the same three months in 2014, and had by that time in the cycle raised l five times over what Hagedorn has. Moreover, in 2006 Walz nearly matched Gutknecht for the quarter, as the six-term congressman took in $203,343.04 to Walz's $202,291.05.

Moreover, the gap in COH in hand was much tighter in 2006 as well. While Gutknecht had $826,391.82 in the bank at the end of June 2006, Walz had $252,829.35, a less than 4-to-1 difference. At the end of June 2014, Hagedorn had $11,894.35, while Walz had $541,913.61. Do the math--and consider the difference in staffing.

If one looks at the most recent pre-primary reports, Walz took in $28,540.00, and closed with $522,766.43, while Hagedorn took in $10,840.00--$2000.00 of which came from the candidate--and ended the period with $9,104.31.

Hagedorn's upset over Miller came in a race in which neither candidate raised much money. Hagedorn's detailed summary for the pre-primay reporting period noted that the committee had total receipts of $90,800.00 for the cycle, while Miller took in $45,985.00, of which $40,000 came from the candidate himself. Indeed, of the $341,666.75 raised by the Miller campaign for the cycle to date, $160,000.00 came from the candidate, who repaid himself, shuttling the cash from account to account.

Neither candidate is a 2006 Tim Walz, and neither had attracted the gifted young staff that helped Walz upset Gutknecht. Nor has the current contest brought in the independent spending that began flooding the district as the race heated up.

Photo: Now that we think of it, Gutknecht's wiki-wiping and Hagedorn's blog post deletion are sort of the same category of behavior. Photo via MPR.

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Things have changed a bit since, but we'll let them find their own map.

We are also perplexed by the exact identity of the committee asking recipients for money. Language at the bottom of the page shows that the effort is for the MN07 Republican federal committee, although the candidates are all running for the state legislature:

Disclaimer:

Prepared and paid for by the 7th Congressional Distric [sic] Republican Party. Craig Bishup[sic], Chair. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.

Corporate and foreign national contributions are not permitted under state law. State Law requires us to collect and report the name, mailing address, occupation and employer of individuals whose contributions exceed $200 per calendar year. Political contributions are not deductible as charitable contributions for state income tax purposes.

And there's this:

First and foremost, it is very important that we meet the criteria of the Fedural Elections Comission. For your donations to be legal, we will need to collect your first and last name, occupation, and employer. After you donate to us, we will send you a confirmation email for your donation at which time we will ask for you to reply to our email with this information.

This is a bit odd, since earlier on the page there's this notice for the political contribtution refund, which can be used only for contributions to state accounts. (While contributions to a federal account may be used for field offices that help local candidates, such contributions are not eligible for the PCR, a source knowledgeable in campaign finance practice tells us).

Returning a phone call, Gary Goldsmith at the Minnesota Campaign Finance Board said that a court ruled that the PCR can be used by a committee with federal and state accounts under some circumstances. He emailed with more information:

In conferring with staff I have learned that the authority for use of donations made under the political contribution refund program by federal committees is a Department of Revenue determination. I am looking for the letter and should be able to send you a copy later today.

The political contribution refund program is actually created under the Department of Revenue statutes and administered by the DOR. The only involvement the Board has is to give out receipt books, although we are sometimes also called on to answer questions.

Political Contribution Refund. Minnesota Statute 290.06 Subdivision 23 extends a refund up to $50.00/Individual or $100.00/Married Couple filing jointly on Minnesota Income Taxes when said Individual or Married Couple filing jointly contribute to a political candidate or political party.

These refunds are paid out under an open appropriation from the general fund. This means that the refund money has already been set aside in the general fund to pay for these refunds. Any monies that are not spent on the PCR will remain in the general fund and the legislature gets to spend all the remaining monies.

This money is already allocated! Don’t let the Legislature waste our hard earned tax dollars. Please join the CD7 Fundraiser and help Republicans regain control of the Minnesota House in November.

Perhaps someone in the press might ask Torrey Westrom if he shares the opinions of the "fan" about Monsanto--or if the tweet of this video, which was tweeted by the MNGOP CD7's account on August 31st--is simply representative of a twitter account in the hands of a careless party member:

Have the CD7 Republicans sharing this information asked Westrom his opinion of Monsanto and "Big Ag"?

The Minnesota House Targets

Two incumbents and five challengers are included in their list.

The MN07 Republicans are hoping to hold Steve Green's seat in HD2B and Mary Franson in HD8B; in HD2A, the Republicans are hoping for an encore by Dave Hancock, while they're touting candidates in HD4A, HD12A, and both sides of SD17. All but 17A are held by DFL freshman legislators.

This is the list that the PCR and a federal committee will help. As we've said, it's not clear how that works.

The Youtube snspshot: no woman is ever alone

The Youtube embedded in the fundraising page is also remarkable if it is to be taken as a representation of Minnesota's Seventh Congressional District.

We see snapshots of a young farmer from Pennington County, a turkey farmer and his son from Gaylord (Sibley County), two girls and two boys from Bemidji (Beltrami County), an angler from Fergus Falls holding a dandy bass, a guy from Moorhead piloting a boat, a guy from Roseau standing outside, two men and a woman from Kittson County in a restaurant or bar, a guy from Redwood Falls talking at podium, a guy from Hutchinson in a state law enforcement uniform, Representative Gruenhagen, his wife and two children, and that's it.

Noticeably missing? Women standing by themselves. Nor do any of the snapshots appear to include people of color in a district that's home to Dakota and Obijwe communities, Latinos and East Africans. Did the YouTube maker simply not see the content of the pictures in her or his show?

According the page:

This fundraising website is sponsored by the Republican leadership of the Seventh Congressional District. We were elected at our district convention in Bemidji in March of 2013. Our website is as follows: http://www.mncd7gop.com/ Our goal is to raise $5,000 to help our candidates in CD7.

Aug 26, 2014

UPDATE September 6: As the screenshot above shows, the most popular city for the "Keith Downey Should Resign" page is Istanbul, Turkey. [end update]

Given the kerfuffle over the endorsement of State Supreme Court Justice candidate Michelle MacDonald and subsequent revelations in the media about her pending DUI trial and her courtroom antics, it's not surprising that someone might create a Facebook page dedicated to requests for the state chairman of the Republican Party of Minnesota to resign.

Here's the Likes page; readers can see that the "City" results is not public:

Update: The Facebook keeper is denying that any ""likes" are paid friends, but there's another huge jump in the fanbase:

Een more entertaining: the notion that "some birdie" tipped Bluestem about this and that there's a question about the authorship of this blog:

The presumed author of this blog, Sally Jo Sorensen, must not be getting her information from the wrong birdie.

We used a google search to find the Turkish fans, and clearly indicated our method. When we now google the page name, we don't find the same results, but search terms "Keith Downey Should Resign" and "Ankara" still reveal three pages of hits. (We had a screenshot)

A similiar search for "Keith Downey Should Resign" and "Minneapolis" yielded five hits:

Update: Republican activist and blogger Jeff Klob tweets that the second name on the list is a "fake account" who runs any other fake accounts:

@sallyjos FYI that William Deberg is a fake account and whoever runs it is behind many other fake accounts.

Comment: I would like it to be known that I am NOT behind the Keith Downey Should Resign page as "reported" on Bluestem Prairie. In fact, I would go so far as to say that Jeff Kolb For Crystal City Council, who has been posing as me on Facebook as Bill De Berg and @Libertylonghair on Twitter is most likely the dood behind it. I certainly don't have money laying around to buy fake profile "likes". I would like the insinuation that I am behind that page to be redacted by the author. Much like former Governor Ventura, I worry that my reputation could be damaged by this allegation. I have been active with Bonn Clayton's JD organization and that is why I posted there. I share many MNGOP activists concern about the association between Keith Downey and the Civis Media Group. I also question his motives behind the Michelle MacDonald fiasco. As much as I support the movement to ask for his resignation, I am not an organizer, nor am I an admin on that page.

Commenter name: William DeBerg

[end update]

Perhaps even more entertaining, the page now has more several thousand fans than the Facebook page for the Republican Party of Minnesota:

While the "Keith Downey Should Resign" page hasn't been around long enough for Google's bots to find many "likes," and the creator hasn't left the most engaged city feature on the "Likes" page, Mr. Google is helpful in discovering where those liking the call for MNGOP state chair Keith Downey's resignation live.

Given the huge spike in likes and the large number of Turkish fans, Bluestem suspects the fanbase is the result of a paid campaign, rather than any organic groundswell to pressure the Republican chair to resign.

Those folks who have been visited by Mr. Google's bots are mostly by people living in Turkey (although the first few on the top of page one are Republican activists, including William Paulsen,who sought the party chair position in 2013 along with Bonn Clayton and Donald Allen).

He also shared the page with Bonn Clayton's "Original JD1 Group" the day it was created:

The Original Judical District 1 group is a group of Republicans who support endorsing judicial candidates.

And the other 2013 state chair contest contender, Donald Allen, makes an appearance in the "community" as well, posting on the timeline:

Bluestem has no sense of how building a community of paid Turkish Facebook fans demanding that the state chair of the Republican Party of Minnesota will help the cause of partisan endorsements of judicial candidates, Republican party building or anything except for popcorn sales for those of us watching this sideshow.

Screenshots: From various Facebook pages.

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Today, the Republican Party of Minnesota followed Mr. Conservative's lead, pursuing a strategy that spins a soundless twelve-second video of visual traffic cone boobies gag by Franken into the moral equivalent of Hagedorn's multiple racist, sexist and homophobic scribblings on his now defunct blog.

The news conference comes less than 24 hours after the Republican candidate for Congress in Minnesota’s First Congressional District apologized for past blog posts that he said were “less than artfully constructed or included language that could lead to hurt feelings.”

Downey started the news conference by criticizing DFL Party Chair Ken Martin’s criticism of the old blog posts by Jim Hagedorn, the Republican nominee to challenge DFL Rep. Tim Walz. Hagedorn’s comments were initially reported in 2009 by liberal blogger Sally Jo Sorensen, but resurfaced last week when Mother Jones published an article reminding voters that Hagedorn wrote that two U.S. Senators were “undeserving bimbos in tennis shoes” and about “John Wayne’s wisdom of the only good Indian being a dead Indian.”

A funny thing has happened to comments attacking Congressman Walz that were left on the Facebook "apology." We'd captured the moment earlier in the screenshot above when a Hagedorn supporter started up on Walz's 1995 traffic stop in Nebraska.

Far from being something Southern Minnesotans don't know about, the traffic stop was used by the Republican attack machine in 2006 and 2008 (NRCC press release here). Walz has never had another incident of the kind since 1995, before he move to Minnesota, his spouse Gwen's home state, to teach in Mankato/

It's good that the Hagedorn campaign finally deleted the material--though the Facebook page apology was widely viewed.

We'll have more on ApologyGhazi as news breaks.

Screenshots:from Hagedorn's Facebook page, before and after scrubbing.

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In an eight-paragraph letter-to-the-editor emailed to the Post-Bulletin, Baker said Hagedorn does not deserve the party's endorsement after he went back on his pledge to abide by the endorsement. Initially, Hagedorn had agreed to abide by the party's endorsement process and dropped out of the race after Republicans endorsed Byron Army veteran Aaron Miller in April. But six weeks later, the Blue Earth Republican re-entered the race, saying Miller wasn't running an aggressive enough campaign. He pulled off an upset victory last week, defeating Miller for the chance to take on 1st District DFL Rep. Tim Walz in November.

"Let me get this straight. We want to reward the guy who lied right to our faces, wasted our time and money and widened the rift in the district by wasting more time and money to give him the very thing he thought lowly enough to ignore four months ago," Baker wrote. . . .

Read the whole thing at the Rochester Post Bulletin. Carlson reports that most activists she spoke to will support Hagedorn, although there's been some residual frostiness.

Bluestem has seen a copy of the email. One thing that Baker mentioned on Monday was the offensive Mr. Conservative content, writing:

. . .A quick google search and you will find Jim's bigoted comments against Native Americans and women. Are you wondering why you never heard about that? Obviously Aaron Miller never used those items against Jim because Aaron is an honorable man who didn't go negative, even though it would have guaranteed the win for him.

Bluestem has to wonder whether Republican primary voters conducted google searches before casting their ballots and didn't care--or whether a majority simply was so overwhelmed by Jim Hagedorn's aggressive charm that they felt they had no choice but to cast their ballots for him.

Photo: The Winona Republican Party field office still displayed a sign for Aaron Miller on August 21, over a week after Jim Hagedorn defeated him in the August 12. Our source tells us the sign is still up on Saturday,

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“I think the big opportunity with Republicans is when Collin Peterson choses to step down” said University of Minnesota Professor Larry Jacobs. “Until then, this is kind of a personal fiefdom.” For now, Jacobs says positioning in the district is “entirely about who replaces Collin Peterson [after he retires].”

But leave it to the Fake News folks at the NRCC to jump on that one. NRCC Rapid Response Director Matt Gorman jumped in with the latest Beltway distortion, implying that Peterson himself believes that:

But the Moorhead Update isn't the only fake news being created about this race. A real blogger at the Sixth Congressional District based Let Freedom Ring blog (crossposted at Look True North) actually be going the Beltway Republicans one better in pumping out nincompoopery about this race.

In the press release, Westrom's positions on various ag policy hot button issues are outlined, as well as the nature of the questions panelists asked. The campaign does not take any direct potshots at Peterson, and the statement is an accurate representation of Westrom's stances.

Those who want to watch the forum can check it out in the Uptake's video embedded below:

In a nearly 90-minute forum at the annual Farmfest agriculture event, few differences surfaced in the western and southern districts that cover most of Minnesota's farm country. Incumbent Democrats U.S. Reps. Collin Peterson and Tim Walz repeatedly talked about their records of helping farmers, even working with Republicans. Challengers relied on their feeling that it is time for a change. . . .

In his quest to unseat 12-term incumbent Democratic Rep. Collin Peterson, Republican state Sen. Torrey Westrom staked out a clear policy agenda during a debate at Farmfest on Wednesday: He wants to speed up the regulatory process. He supports more pipeline infrastructure to transport oil and free up delivery capacity on rail lines. He spoke about the need to inform urban-area lawmakers about the importance of farming during the twice-a-decade farm bill overhaul process.

His only problem is that Peterson agrees on all three points.

Indeed, on issues, Wednesday's debate showed little difference between the Republican and Democratic candidates. So Westrom, a state Senator making his first challenge to Peterson, one of the last remaining moderate Democrats in the U.S. House, said afterward his strategy this fall will be to focus on other policy areas where Peterson might be weak in an otherwise Republican-leaning district.

Gross quotes from the press release that he's labeled an "article," while never actually telling his readers the name of the forum or where and when it took place. Next he moves to commentary plucked from we know not where:

When it comes to getting things done in DC, Collin Peterson is about as worthless as a potted plant. He didn’t stand up to President Obama and the environmental activists that run the EPA or the spineless diplomats in the State Department.

Sitting here in Bluestem Prairie's World Headquarters in sunny Maynard, Chippewa County, in the agricultural southern part of MN07, we're scratching our heads, wondering just where this spleen comes from.

It's not coming from Westrom's straight forward press statement. Moreover, it's not coming from any news reports on this planet, at least not in the MN07 corner of it.

Members of a House Agriculture subcommittee from both parties had a heated exchange yesterday with a top USDA official over the Environmental Protection Agency's proposal for defining exactly what falls under the agency's jurisdiction under the Clean Water Act (CWA).

In the hot seat was Robert Bonnie, the USDA's under secretary for natural resources and environment. He told lawmakers that an “interpretive rule” on farming and ranching exemptions under the CWA, issued at the same time as the EPA proposal to define “Waters of the U.S.,” ensures that 56 specific agricultural conservation practices, executed under the standards of the USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service, would not be subject to CWA dredged or fill permitting requirements. . . .

Rep. Collin Peterson, D-Minn., the ranking member of the full Agriculture Committee, also criticized the rule and submitted a list of over 100 conservation practices recognized by NRCS, half of which are not included in the EPA's interpretive rule. “How do you say you're covering everything, when it's not true?” he said. . . .

Two bills that have bipartisan support in the U.S. House of Representatives address serious concerns voiced by the American Farm Bureau Federation about the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed “Waters of the U.S.” rule.

A second bill addresses concerns about common farm practices that have been exempt from Clean Water Act regulation but could lose that status under the proposed rule.

In March the EPA and Army Corps of Engineers issued an interpretive rule to clarify how “Waters of the U.S.” would affect normal farming, ranching and forestry exemptions. AFBF analysis determined that the interpretive rule narrows the list of existing exemptions and would require compliance with otherwise voluntary U.S. Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service standards. The proposal puts the USDA in the unprecedented position of enforcing Clean Water Act compliance.

The bill further states that no soil and water conservation practices will be treated as new uses of areas of navigable waters, impairments of the flow of navigable waters or reductions in the reach of those waters under recapture provisions in Section 404 of the Clean Water Act. The bill also clarifies that normal farming, ranching and forestry activities will be treated as such without regard to their date of commencement.

We guess Gross missed that, but then, he fails to cite any source about Peterson's record or public statements about the proposed water rule. He goes on:

What's Peterson doing about train traffic? First, he's being realistic, understanding that while pressure helps, short term solutions are just that. AgWeek reports in Peterson, Sinner talk grain train delays:

Farm groups have raised concerns in recent weeks about delays affecting their ability to move crops quickly. A cold winter, a large grain harvest and increased oil train traffic have been cited for the delay.

BNSF, the largest railroad in North Dakota, is investing about $400 million in North Dakota in part to increase capacity.

“I think that Burlington Northern at least, they’ve got the message. They are putting more resources in,” said Peterson, who went to Cavalier as Sinner’s guest. “The problem is, in the short term that’s not going to really probably do much.”

For Peterson, longterm solutions include building the Keystone XL pipeline (he's voted for it) that will pick up and the Enbridge Sandpiper pipeline. The Keystone Pipeline is largely intended to haul tar sand oil, but it will take on 100,000 barrels per day of Bakken oil.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has approved a storage facility that could ease a second straight winter propane shortage.

U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., said the corps approved the 1 million-gallon facility at "record speed" so it will be ready for this fall's harvest. . . .

The project is at the Dooley Petroleum facility in Benson in west-central Minnesota. The new storage will be in addition to 1.5 million gallons Dooley already has available. . . .

Last winter, propane supplies were short for a variety of reasons. Those shortages sent propane prices soaring. Some Minnesotans had trouble obtaining the fuel, which is used to dry grain, heat livestock facilities and heat homes.

"Last winter's propane shortage meant Minnesotans paid near record prices to heat their homes and left many facing uncertainty about propane access in the future," U.S. Rep. Collin Peterson, D-Minn., said.

Peterson, Klobuchar and U.S. Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., wrote a letter to the corps seeking permission to build the new facility.

Dooley's operates branches in nearby Clara City and here in Maynard. It's a MN07 business.

A blogger like Gross has the right to assert anything, but voters should be on the lookout for fake news in the MN07 congressional campaign. Is an opinion documented? Are the links to reputable news sources and ag organizations? Or does a site lead readers only into campaign material?

As we just learned in the DFL state auditor's race, a campaign and its supporters will say anything to get elected--but voters have retained the ability to evaluate claims and vote accordingly.

So far, the Westrom campaign is sticking to describing his positions, but those folks pushing him as an alternative to Peterson? Not so much.

The House GOP campaign arm, previously criticized for phony Democratic candidate sites, is now in the faux-news game.

The National Republican Congressional Committee, which came under fire earlier this year for a deceptive series of fake Democratic candidate websites that it later changed after public outcry, has launched a new set of deceptive websites, this time designed to look like local news sources.

The NRCC has created about two dozen of these new faux news sites targeting Democrats, both challengers and incumbents, and is promoting them across the country with localized Google search ads. . . .

"This is a new and effective way to disseminate information to voters who are interested in learning the truth about these Democratic candidates," said Andrea Bozek, communications director for the NRCC. . .

The NRCC's online push comes despite the blowback the committee received for the look-alike Democratic sites, which prompted a complaint from a watchdog group to the Federal Election Commission. Under public pressure, the NRCC changed the design of those sites to make it clearer that contributors were sending their money to the House GOP campaign arm and not the Democratic candidates whose pictures appeared on the page. . . .

Josh Schwerin, a spokesman for the DCCC, still criticized the approach. "House Republicans' campaign strategy to overcome their own historic unpopularity is to resort to deception—again," he said. . . .

While skirting the legal side of campaign law, the tactic is a bit not Minnesota Nice. Read the entire article at the National Journal.

Making Real News Fake: The Case of the Point of View Video

The screenshot above also includes a staple used by the NRCC against Peterson: Point of View host Chris Berg's Summer 2013 kvetching about how Peterson won't show up for an interview.

Chet at North Decoder has his own take on this episode in the August 2013 The Clueless National Republican Congressional Committee, but Bluestem sees the out-of-context use of the clip (apparently no longer online at the Red River Valley TV station itself, as is often the case with older broadcast material online)

Instead, we find it useful to identify when Collin Peterson actually was on Chris Berg's show last summer. Since the station doesn't spend bandwidth on keeping clips of shows online forever, we looked for other documentation of where the twain met.

Last night Valley News Live’s Chris Berg interviewed Minnesota Congressman Collin Peterson at a farm bill forum he held alongside North Dakota Congressman Kevin Cramer. During the interview, Berg asked Rep. Peterson about claims North Dakota Democrats have made about Rep. Cramer and the farm bill. . . .

Rep. Peterson also explained what changes are being made to the food stamps program (or SNAP), saying he’s more comfortable with what Democrats are doing with the program than with what his own [sic] party is doing. . .

And as the screenshot of the station's May 30, 2013 Facebook posting reveals, Peterson was to be a guest on the show that night:

We've also posted Say Anthing's screengrab of Peterson, presumably from that segment.

Less than three months late, Berg's complaints were aired--and shared by the NRCC in a press release on August 21, 2013 (North Decoder blog). Eight days after the press release, on August 29, the television posted to Facebook:

House Ag Committee Ranking Member Collin Peterson (D., Minn.) was a guest yesterday on the Valley News Live (Fargo, N.D.) Point of View television program with Chris Berg. In part, the conversation focused on the Farm Bill.

Minnesota Rep. Collin Peterson appeared on Chris Berg’s 6:30 Point of View program last night alongside Rep. Kevin Cramer, and when confronted with disparities between Senator Heitkamp’s comments and one of his own press releases on the issue, Rep. Peterson suggested there’s “a lot of hypocrisy” on the issue.

How fake is the NRCC's fake news? Pretty fake. Peterson appeared on Berg's show three times in the space of under four months, and the presumption that there's something wrong with drawing one's salary makes Bluestem eager for the announcement that Peterson's Republican challenger Torrey Westrom will donate his congressional wages to pay for seniors' prescriptions.

Now Lucero is doing a bit of informal endorsing of his own of conservative women running for office, and while it's likely that he and VOICES will concur on two (Mandy Benz's website lists VOICES as an endorser) of the three, one disagreement is already in the mix.

VOICES of Conservative Women (VOICESPAC) announces their endorsement and strong support of Representative Jenifer Loon for State Representative (48B).

“VOICES of Conservative Women proudly endorses Jenifer Loon for MN State Representative. Jenifer has been a tireless advocate of fiscal restraint on behalf of her constituents, an advocate for small business, and a leader,” said Jennifer DeJournett, President of VOICES of Conservative Women.

Representative Jenifer Loon has been an exemplary leader in the Minnesota House. She is a leader who not only is principled but also is willing to go above and beyond to support those around her. She is a mentor to many women who hope to follow in her footsteps. . .

Lucero is having none of it. On his Facebook page, he shared this status on the same day:

Sheila Kihne is running largely for the same reason Lucero is: removing pro-marriage equality Republicans from office. FitzSimmons had offered an amendment to Minnesota's marriage bill to clarify that it applied only to civil marriage, then voted for the final bill, as did Loon, Pat Garfalo (Farmington) and Andrea Kieffer (Woodbury). Kieffer is retiring because her daughter's medical condition demands more of her time, while Garofalo was endorsed without opposition.

However, voters in HD48B turned down the anti-marriage equality bill by nearly 60 percent, so Kihne's outrage at Loon's support of the freedom to marry might not carry the day for Kihne as it did for Lucero in a conservative Wright County district where the anti-same-sex marriage measure captured 53.09 percent of the vote.

Lucero himself faces a primary challenge from Kevin Kasel, who stresses his pown experience while scolding the unbearable lightness of Lucero's one-issue campaign.

The other women that the endorsed Republican for 30B supports are equally anti-marriage equality as Lucero is, though not as hyper-focused as he and Kihne.

The endorsed DFL candidate is Peter Perovich, who is running on bread-and-butter DFL issues of job creation, property tax reduction and infrastructure. Given that Abeler was one of two Republican state representatives to survive his party's outrage over a vote to override Governor Pawlenty's veto of a gas tax hike, focusing on transportation is a solid choice for connecting with voters in the suburban Anoka County district.

We can't say, although some Republican stalwarts are already liking and sharing Kihne's filing phot. Talk radio host Sue Jeffers shared the photo, noting that Kihne is a candidate for whom she can drop lit, while Seifert for Minnesota political director Tim Gould, the Minnesota Family Council's Autumn Leva and 16 others liked it. Meanwhile, Republican power players have lined up behind Loon.

Today's West Central Tribune offers more evidence that Republican gubernatorial challenger Marty Seifert (@seifertmn on twitter and Marty Seifert for Governor on Facebook) isn't running against three other Republicans or even Governor Mark Dayton, but Minneapolis and social media itself.

“You can’t just sit in Minneapolis at your campaign headquarters on Twitter and Facebook and hope that your campaign works out,” he said. “You’ve got to get out and you’ve got to hustle.”

And there's this that sets him apart from the other Republicans:

Seifert said his Republican opponents are “great people” and called them friends.

But “they all live in western Hennepin County and they’re generally cut from the same cloth,” said Seifert, who touts his rural credentials and claims to be the only candidate who’s lived his entire life in Minnesota.

Other than “minor nuances” there’s not much philosophically and politically that separates the three candidates, he said.

It's curious to read Seifert's place-baiting comments in the rural press, along with the "only candidate who’s lived his entire life in Minnesota" claim, since Seifert's new Youtube features a number of Minnesotans set in urban backdrops, including an office.

Rather than place-baiting urban versus rural, Minnesotan born v. moved here, supporters in the video--like the East African-American man at the 45-second mark--say things like this:

He's the person who can bring it, all people, together, no matter what they believe, what different--where they come from, or what party they are in.

Here's the Youtube:

The video's description bills the content as "Real Minnesotans make the case for Marty Seifert, candidate for governor."

But put Marty on a plane out in Greater Minnesota, and suddenly, some Minnesotans are more real than others, especially those folks tweeting in Hennepin County.